There is no doubt that Benjamin
Romeo is a perfectionist when it comes to winemaking. He is both
passionate in the bodega, and obsessive in the vineyard. He
worked as winemaker at Artadi between 1985 and 2000, and now has
his own small project where he makes limited quantities of
super-expensive, but also high quality, limited production Rioja,
called, Contador, Cuvea del Contador, and La Vina de Andres, named
after his father Andres.

Situated in and around San Vicente
de la Sonsierra, Benjamin has 7 hectares, with half devoted to La
Vina de Andres, and the other half divided between 20 plots
averaging 130 feet square with vines up to 45-100 years old.
The vines are situated at the
altitude of 400-600 metres above see level and are called 'El Saúco', 'El Bullón', 'Azkueta',
'Mindiarte', 'San Juan', 'Asnillas'.
Benjamin also acquired several caves or “grotto’s”, dating back
to the 12th and 16th centuries. One such grotto situated in
San Vicente de la Sonsierra, is under
the belltower, which is depicted on the Contador’s label.
Contador, translated means “book-keeper”

The attention to detail of these is
exemplified from hand selection of grapes to, personally traveling
to Extremadura to select the individual cork trees, for the corks,
incidentally the same cork supply that is used by Ch Petrus.
During the grape ripening time of the year, Benjamin visits the
vineyard daily, many of which are bordered by wild flowers and
herbs. He feels the aromatics of the herbs have an influence on
the wine grapes.

Fermentation takes place at 25°С,
then malolactic fermentation takes place. The barriques are
different from 7-8 producers, always softly roasted. The wine is
matured during 18 months.

The production for all Benjamin
Romeo wines are absurdly low, with Contador being just a few
hundred bottles in North America. Wine critics have given the
wines rave reviews. For the string of 2000 to 2005 vintages, The
Wine Advocate has given Contador scores of, 98, 98, 96, 99, 100,
100.